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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Booksteve Reviews: Induction of the Sycophant by Tiger Moody

When one gets offered a free review copy of a new book, one
never knows what to expect. Especially if the author isn’t a known quantity.
Happens all the time. I try to keep things in perspective and am genuinely
impressed that these folks have managed to get a book published one way or
another!

Thus it comes as a most pleasant and welcome surprise when
said book turns out to be much more than you were expecting. This was the case
with Tiger Moody’s INDUCTION OF THE SYCOPHANT. I had never heard of the author
nor the book nor even the publisher, Kicks Books, which turns out to be a
division of the wonderfully psychotronic Norton Records. The unnecessary
periods after both title and author on the cover had me dreading chapter after
chapter of poorly—or at least oddly—punctuated prose.

And what about that cover? From what I understand, Mr. Moody
himself did the art and while it is not the most appealing or enticing cover
I’ve ever seen, it does, at least, make some sense by the end of the story. Symbolically
anyway.

The story. Here’s where it gets good. Comics fans will
undoubtedly recognize the title, INDUCTION OF THE SYCOPHANT’s, vague echoing of
Dr. Fredric Wertham’s SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT. The late Doctor himself, name
intact, plays a major role throughout the story. Other characters are also
folks a comics fan would know, although with most other names changed to allow
for more “poetic license” with their characters.

Some of the folks whose literary doppelgangers you’ll find
in INDUCTION are Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Bob Wood, Bill Gaines, Wallace Wood,
Mort Meskin, and most importantly, Jack Cole. In the story, despite some
obvious changes in situations, they all behave and talk pretty much the way
they behaved and talked in real life. They do not all come off in the best
light, though.

In fact, part of the fun of the story—spot illustrated with
PD comics panels from the period—is being able to recognize the lovingly
accurate details Moody gives his people such as Wood’s interest in singing,
Cole’s insecurities, Eisner’s gentrified airs, Meskin’s mental health issues, and
Kirby’s boorishness.

The actual plot these people whirl around in is a pretty
dark one, based around their varying reactions to the real-life mid-1950s Keafauver
hearings on Juvenile Delinquency. In fact, while I haven’t checked, I’m pretty
sure most if not all of Wertham’s testimony here is, verbatim, his actual
Congressional testimony. Ditto for Gaines.

Cole is the closest thing to a POV character and, as in real
life, his story is ultimately tragic, although here far from that reality.
There are other, more original characters as well, including Leonard, the small
African-American boy on the cover, and red-headed Archie Andrews, a profane vet
with a couple of low-rent girlfriends. (He’s more like Harvey Kurtzman’s
Starchie.) At the unexpected if not quite shocking climax, many of the book’s
diverse elements come together, but the ending itself just sort of peters out
in that way that life, in spite of everything, just keeps on keepin’ on.

Moody’s rich characterizations pull no punches, showing us
warts and all for some of our artistic heroes. Some I knew about, others he may
have just made up. That’s presumably why the names were changed after all.

The author’s writing style is almost purposely reminiscent
of Burroughs (William, not ERB) but he pulls it off so it doesn’t really feel
like an affectation. He genuinely captures the feel of his 60 years gone urban
setting, complete with all that meant for women and other minorities. Unlike
the fantasy perfect world older politicians keep saying they want to take us
back to, there was discrimination, deceit, hiding, cheating, backstabbing,
murder, and, of course, all those comics-reading juvenile delinquents Dr.
Wertham kept warning everyone about! At the end of the day, it’s Wertham
himself who comes off as perhaps the book’s most sympathetic character!

Although moments of humor pop up consistently, this is not a
parody. Explicit, dark, violent, disturbing, and a real downer in very many
ways, INDUCTION OF THE SYCOPHANT is certainly not for everyone. If you don’t
know comics history (see THE 10 CENT PLAGUE), then there’s simply no way you’ll
get out of this everything the author has put into it. But if you ARE familiar
with comic books and the players in their history, you’ll easily appreciate
that Moody is, too.

If you’re open-minded, INDUCTION is a quick trip through
Tiger Moody’s noir-ish alternate history of the men behind the comics in their
darkest hours. He’s now an author I plan to watch.

1 comment:

Really glad to see this reviewed, as it was the best book I read last year. Moody's book compelled me to learn more about the people he based his characters on. A must for anyone interested in the period.

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First published in 1968 (I was 9!), I have been writing professionally part-time for more than two decades. I have been freelancing for various authors, editors and publishers for the past three years on the behind-the-scenes tasks of writing.